The week in Tech: Five must-know things

Dec. 13, 2013
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A screenshot from a message sent through Instagram Direct. / Instagram

by Julia Ryan, USA TODAY

by Julia Ryan, USA TODAY

This week in Tech, we took a break from the madness of holiday shopping to check out a new Instagram feature, try out a few new smartwatches and more. Here's what you need to know about the week in Tech:

Watch out, Snapchat. Instagram unveiled its own direct-message feature, called Instagram Direct, at a press event in New York earlier this week.

Direct lets you exchange photos and videos with people you follow and engage in back-and-forth conversations. Pictures sent from users you don't follow are automatically stored in a pending requests pile that you approve or decline.

You can't place your Instagram Direct contacts into specific groups, but Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said that option might be available in future versions of Direct.

Siri has some new competition. Experts tested Apple's voice-command system against Google's voice-based search service, Google Now, earlier this week and got some surprising results.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told USA TODAY's Alistair Barr that he asked both systems 800 questions and found that Google Now has significantly improved since last year. Siri got a C+ grade, compared with a C last year, but Google Now got a C+ grade this year, up from a D- last year. Google Now was also found to be better at "picking out a user's voice in 'uncontrolled environments.'"

The biggest names in the tech world are teaming up against the National Security Agency.

Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook and other tech companies announced earlier this week in an open letter that they have formed the Reform Government Surveillance coalition to "urge the U.S. to take the lead and make reforms that ensure that government surveillance efforts are clearly restricted by law."

The coalition has yet to enact any real change at the NSA. But USA TODAY's Jon Swartz says the forming of this coalition sends a message: "Reassuring the public that sensitive information is safe from the prying eyes of the government is crucial to Google, Facebook and other Internet companies. The surveillance kerfuffle is becoming an ominous asterisk to what has become a data obsession among major tech companies."

Are smartwatches worth the investment? Not just yet, says USA TODAY's Ed Baig. He tested out three smartwatches on the market to see how they compare to smartphones and other gadgets.

Baig says Sony's Smartwatch 2 is a "big step forward" from its predecessor, with more apps, an improved display and increased battery life. Qualcomm's Toq smartwatch has an "impressive display" and "strong battery life," but it's a pricey buy at $349. The kid-friendly FiLIP smartwatch is also somewhat expensive at $199, but it comes with GPS tracking and an emergency button - a worthy investment for parents of children who like to wander.

Psy dominated YouTube for the second year in a row in 2013, beating out controversial pop stars and viral videos to claim the No. 1 spot on YouTube's list of most-viewed videos of the year. Psy's video Gentleman racked up over 598 million views this year. Other videos in the top 10 include Miley Cyrus' music video for Wrecking Ball and Robin Thicke's for Blurred Lines.